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Lebanon County nonprofits profit on Day of Caring

An estimated 1,000 volunteers turned out Saturday for dozens of projects, among them Light's Fort

By KATHY HACKLEMANFor The Lebanon Daily News

Updated:
04/21/2013 09:31:46 PM EDT

Sandy Jones, president of the Friends of Light s Fort, displays artwork done by volunteer Cheryl Gecelosky. Prints will be available soon as a Friends fundraiser. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS KATHY HACKLEMAN)

An estimated 1,000 people contributed more than 3,000 hours of labor for 50 to 60 nonprofit organizations in Lebanon County on Saturday, part of the 17th annual United Way Day of Caring, according to local coordinator Erika Zaborny.

Members of the Lebanon Builders Association contributed a significant number of those hours, first dismantling an 18th-century stone wall behind Wertz's Candies on Lebanon's Cumberland Street, then hauling the stone to Light's Fort, the oldest standing building in Lebanon, located at 11th and Maple streets.

Sandy Jones, president of the Friends of Light's Fort, explained that the organization was seeking old stone to rebuild portions of the building's walls.

Gene Kreitzer, owner of Gene Kreitzer Construction and a member of the Lebanon Builders Association, dumps a load of stone at Light s Fort on Saturday. Association members removed the old stone from a downtown location and hauled it to Light s Fort, where it will be used to rebuild portions of the building s walls. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS KATHY HACKLEMAN)

The fort was constructed in 1742 as a 30-foot by 40-foot, two-story limestone building surrounded by a stockade. Through the years, the Johannes Licht house, long known as Light's Fort, is believed to have been used as a Mennonite house of worship, a safe haven for dozens of families during French and Indian War raids, and as a private home.

"We've been working at (restoring the exterior of the building) for more than 10 years," Jones said. "Wertz's offered us old stone several years ago, but we didn't have a way to get it here or the expertise to use it if we had it. Now we do."

The builders group fixed one of those problems, and mason Tom Sattazahn is going to take care of the other.

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Sattazahn, who operates Thomas Masonry Construction in Lebanon, is donating some labor and giving the organization a break on the remaining labor to restore the building's walls due to his interest in the historic building.

Sattazahn will work with more than just the material delivered from the Cumberland location. Recently, the organization also received a gift of 10 truckloads of stone when an old barn near Annville was demolished.

"We are excited," said Pam Tricamo, vice president of the Friends.

Boy Scout Troop 12 Scoutmaster George Conn and his son, John, plant a tree at a pond near Stoever s Dam as part of a combined Day of Caring/Earth Day project on Saturday. About 15 Scouts participated in the tree-planting project. (LEBANON DAILY NEWS KATHY HACKLEMAN)

"For a number of years, we have wondered where the stone would come from. Now it's falling from the sky."

Saturday's Day of Caring isn't the only time volunteers step up to help the group in its effort to save the fort, Jones pointed out. Local artist Cheryl Gecelosky recently donated artwork of the fort, prints of which will soon be available for sale to raise funds for the organization.

Karen Dundore-Gulotta, president of the Lebanon Community Theatre board of directors, also was grateful for the assistance of her organization's 10 volunteers on Saturday.

"Today, the volunteers are cleaning the costume shop," she said. "They are going through all of the costumes, throwing out things that aren't useful anymore, and then sorting the remaining items by category, such as men's shirts, ladies' coats and so on. We are planning to sell some items at the flea market, so the volunteers are also boxing up those things."

Although she has been working at the clearing-out project for a while, she said "we haven't made the kind of progress we are making today with 10 people."

New locations to see volunteer work during this years' Day of Caring included the American Red Cross, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Bordner cabin in Swatara State Park, J. Edward Mack Scout Reservation, Jubilee Ministries and Potential Re-entry Opportunities in Business and Education, also known as PROBE. Projects included everything from construction to painting, cleaning, mulching and planting.

In addition to Day of Caring, numerous volunteers - many with young children - fanned out across the community carrying hundreds of cards made by area elementary and preschool students for residents of more than 20 elder-care facilities in a related project known as "Deliver a Smile."

Two groups - Boy Scout Troop 12 of Salem Lutheran Church and students from Cedar Crest High School - joined in a project at Stoever's Dam in conjunction with Earth Day.

According to Jason Capello, a student at California University of Pennsylvania majoring in environmental studies, the city applied for and received a state Department of Environmental Protection Environmental Stewardship and Watershed Protection Grant to establish a riparian forest buffer - a streamside area that includes trees, shrubs and grass - around an upstream pond that is one of the sources of the water supply to the lake at Stoever's Dam. Other funding for the project was provided by local residents Ed and Jeannie Arnold.

"We had a two-step plan," Capello said. "First we added an aeration pump, which adds oxygen, which is critical in water quality management in controlling algae and aquatic weeds. Then we wanted to alleviate the effects of runoff from a farmer's field on one side of the pond and runoff from a parking lot on the other side."

In addition to buffering pollution of the pond from nearby land and protecting the aquatic environment, the project will reduce bank erosion and provide habitat for animals, he said.

The Scouts from Troop 12 are making a weekend of being outdoors. After their tree-planting duties Saturday, they were to camp out Saturday night.

"The kids love doing this kind of stuff," said George Conn, the scoutmaster. "This is the first time we have worked with the Day of Caring, but I expect we will participate again as we help with lots of civic programs."

"A while ago, we planted some trees for a similar project that one of the kids was doing as an Eagle Scout project to cut down on silt before it gets into the water on a tributary that runs into the Quittapahilla," added John Conn, Conn's son and one of the Scouts.